Rating Schools: Use Library Quality
Response to LA Times editoral: Grading California's Schools, August 7More relevant than using outcomes (test scores, graduation rates) in rating schools is an "input" factor: the quality of the library.Study after study shows that that students living in states with better school libraries do better on tests of reading achievement. California ranks near the bottom of the country in sc
Listen to teachers, read the research
Sent to the Jewish Journal, August 7, 2014Ellie Herman ("To save education, listen to teachers," August 6) points out that many of those driving education policy in the US have never taught. The situation is even worse: Education policy makers are also ignorant of educational research: They are unaware that scientific studies published in professional journals provide no support for the
Failure at An Early Age
Fourteen years ago Louisiana had the dubious distinction of being the first state in the Union to require elementary school students to pass a state test, the LEAP, to be promoted to the next grade. Parents, teachers, and principals in high poverty neighborhoods all over Louisiana knew what was coming, and all the "Lean on Jesus" test prep rallies that could be staged by parents and chu
Access to books helps close the reading gap in kindergarten
Access to books helps close the reading gap in kindergartenStephen KrashenFryer and Levitt (2004) examined reading and math test scores in kindergarten and grade 1 from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (about 1000 schools). Their focus was the gap between black and white children.For reading, the difference between black and white children at the start of kindergarten was .40 (where 0 = me
8-6-14 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: Rahm Slashes Schools to Funnel Cash to Corporate PalsThe reptilian Rahm Emanuel has a conscious strategy to allow profiteers and privatizers to take over Chicago Public Schools, and he is using the money saved by starving the schools and cutting teacher pensions to provide corporate subsidies to his cronies. David Sirota has the story:Months after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said b
